Happy Birthday?
by TofuNinjaCat
Summary: It's Takao's birthday. Everyone would have guessed that the normally happy boy wold go rattling off about his birthday, but it's not the case. I guess that it's not so 'happy' after all.
1. Chapter 1

Takao looked around questioningly as he poked his head out of his room to check if anyone was around. Today, he had woken up with a start as he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, telling him that something was wrong or that he was forgetting something important.

When the pony-tailed teen had woken up, he had checked the time and stared incredulously at the digital clock by his bedside. According to the tiny machine, it had been 1:14 A.M. in the morning, shown in little sharp green glowing letters. Takao was in shock. He _never_ woke up that early. _N.E.V.E.R._ Heck! He had never even woke up before 10 since those times in the couple of years before! 'Meh, might as well take advantage of it and possibly find out the cause of the feeling of dread in my stomach.' Takao thought.

He silently made his way down the steps and decided to go into the kitchen. The teen grabbed himself a cup and filled it to the brim with cool icy water from the fridge. He sat around on the couch for a minute or two before going outside to do a favor and watered Gramp's bonsai trees for the old guy. After doing that, Takao went back inside and checked again to see if anyone was up beside himself. He went away to the rainbow unicorn land and got himself overweight from eating too much cotton candy clouds with sprinkles and pop rocks. Well, in his dream of course.

He managed to wake up again while not even getting another hour of sleep. The midnight haired teen just rubbed his eyes and groaned, knowing that it would be useless to try fall asleep again. Takao yawned and stretched like a cat before he walked over to the dresser to get his clothes. He picked out a simple black T- shirt and a pair of baggy jeans. Takao slipped on his clothes and went outside once more to take a short walk. As he walked along the streets, the teen had a multitude of thoughts running through his head.

'What was that feeling that was present when I woke up?' He asked himself silently.

Takao hit himself on the head lightly in frustration, unable to think of the cause of his uneasiness. Then he snapped out of his thoughts just fast enough to avoid hitting smack into a fence.

"What the…! A fence?! Where the hell did that come from?" Takao said, startled.

Then he realized where his legs had taken him. A ghost of a smile made its way onto his face as he walked into the graveyard. Quite ironic really. The slender teen made his way past rows of gravestones before stopping on a particular one, one that almost made him want to cry.

With a slightly quivering voice, Takao made himself known to the silent cemetery.

"…Hey mom.." Takao had to bite back an onslaught of tears as he kneeled in front of his beloved mother's grave.

As he continued to talk, he was mentally beating himself up for almost crying so quickly.

"I'm sorry for not bringing flowers this time, but I guess that I wasn't really prepared. But I want you to know that everyone is all good. Gramps is as energetic as ever!" Takao laughed dryly which eventually became a sigh.

"Man, I hope that you're doing okay up there mom… I hope you're happy."

The teen chocked up tears as he covered his face with his right arm, the left gripping at his jeans. After a couple of seconds of muffled cries and sniffing, a slightly red faced Takao peered at the tombstone again.

"Hey, I'm sorry for crying like that, I bet that I'm not really fit to be your son after all, maybe you guys were better off with just Hiroshi…"

The midnight haired teen sighed again," If I weren't born, then maybe you would still be here mom."

"Well, I better not burden you with any other stupid things that I have to say, bye mom, I love you."

Takao stood up, not even bothering to brush himself off and turned, ready to leave, but not before glancing at the gravestone once more.

He left.

And behind him, a faintly seen woman, with a slender body, flowing midnight hair, cerulean eyes that almost shined with distant warmth, and a sunflower dress that ruffled slightly in the wind, could be seen, sitting on the gravestone. A trail of tears was streaming down her face.

A beautiful melodic but faint voice carried its message through the winds.

"I love you too."


	2. Chapter 2

Takao walked home with his hands stuffed lazily in his pockets, with full plans on cleaning up his dry tears that managed to escape as soon as he got back to the dojo. The rest of the trek back home was uneventful, with the occasional leaf or two escaping from its humble abode from a tree and landing on the teen's midnight locks.

A sigh resonated through the dojo and the sound of the rice paper door closing was dully heard. Takao ran a hand idly through his hair as he looked in the mirror of the bathroom. He grabbed a couple of tissues and went to work. After cleaning and washing up, Takao found that he felt way more relived and relaxed then he was only a few minutes ago. He quietly padded to his room and expertly closed his door without any noise. Takao peered at the clock on his wall and was slightly shocked that his walk wasn't very short at all. It was already 6! The dragon then put on his trademark yellow T-shirt and red vest along with the baseball cap and made his way downstairs.

When he stepped into the kitchen, he saw the two older members of the BladeBreakers about in their business. Well in this case, Rei was bustling about making breakfast, something with a sweet smelling batter, and Kai was reading the newspaper, occasionally sipping his coffee. 'Heh,' Takao thought. 'They look like a proper married couple.' He sighed, of course they would make a great couple, and they were almost meant for each other. 'And that's why I won't stand a chance.'

At the sound of a sigh, both older teen instantly had their attention on Takao.

"Hn, so you finally decided to wake up accordingly?" Kai said, all while turning back to skimming through the news articles.

"There's a first time for everything ya know." Takao replied back haughtily.

The younger sat down in his seat and laid his head down on the table. Both the other boys looked questioningly at this action. Kai thought that he would be a lot talkative then he was and Rei expected the dragon to be demanding his breakfast.

"Hey, you alright?" Rei asked tentatively, concern laced his words.

Takao was debating in his mind if he should share his problems with his teammates, but in the end of the silent brawl, the dragon decided that his friends already had enough to worry about in their own personal lives and he better not burden them with any of his own.

"No, nothing's wrong, don't worry Rei."

"...Okay then, but don't hesitate to tell me if anything is wrong Takao, K?"

"...K." The midnight haired teen replied, with a slight but noticeable pause.

The teens all sat in a comfortable silence with the only sounds being Kai occasionally flipping a page of the newspaper he was still reading, Rei still working on breakfast, which was starting to look a lot like pancakes (Takao's favorite), and said teen blowing a strand or two of hair out of his face as he had laid his head down again.

The peaceful atmosphere was shattered when a bouncy and bubbly Max came rushing through the front door of the dojo, with Hilary close behind, who had Kenny in tow, with said boy still typing on his laptop.

"Guys we're here!" Max shouted happily.

The hyperactive blond looked around the room just to make sure that everyone else was already there. As usual, he saw Kai's neutral and somewhat stoic expression, Rei's back turned to him as the nekojin was making breakfast (though Max was able to catch a small smile on his face when Rei turned), Kenny still typing on his laptop with his face only inches away from the screen, Hilary's disgruntled expression because she had dragged the bushy haired genius the whole way to the dojo and then his eyes finally landed on Takao. His best friend. There was something wrong. The bright smile once on Max's face quickly morphed into concern. The look on Takao's face could only be described as...far away. It was like he had zoned out. The bluenett looked solemn and his head was resting in his arms on the table.

"Hey buddy, your killin' the mood!" Max attempted to lift the heavy tension in the air, thick enough to rest on his shoulders, but most importantly, to bring a smile to his best friends face.

But for once, it didn't reach Takao.


	3. Chapter 3

"What the hell is wrong with him!? What have you guys done!?" Max sounded furious, even while whispering.

"We didn't do anything we swear! We were just doing what we do every morning and I even asked him if he was alright!" Rei answered the question for both him and Kai all while glancing at the frying pan still on the stove. The blond had dragged everyone outside for a 'talk'. The nekojin stared again at the pan and saw that it caught on fire.

"Gaaahhhh! My beautiful pancakes are on fire!" Rei made a quick dash back inside to save their breakfast and potentially stop a forest fire, since the dojo was near a forest. (AN: This is probably not accurate story-wise but just nod your head and go with it!)

As Rei was inside to fan the burnt pancakes, now beyond recognition and looking like charcoal, Max was still interrogating Kai.

"I know I'm probably going to earn myself an extra 30 laps around the dojo for this but… WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO MY FRIEND!?" The blonde was clearly pissed and it was written all over his freckled face. Kai was in some deep shit, and all Hilary and Kenny could do was stand there and watch.

"Did he say anything out of place?" Max asked.

"Hn."

"Did he do anything weird besides being laying his head down?"

"…Hn."

"Did he eat breakfast?"

"…"

"Kai, SPEAK!" Oh, the two brunettes standing off at the side knew that Max had taken a step into the wrong field now.

But surprisingly…

"…Woof."

Max just put on his stern face, which looked really weird because it hadn't existed until now.

"Kai, now."

"He didn't say anything besides denying the fact that he wasn't alright even though he clearly was, he walked down the stairs without running to get his food, and no."

Now, the blond was in shock.

"…Wow, never thought that Kai would ever speak more than three words at most at a time."

Then, he promptly fainted.

 **Meanwhile, over here!**

Rei brushed his left hand across his forehead in relieve when he was done turning the stove to low and dumping a glass of water on the pan. The sizzle was both annoying and loud, enough to snap Takao out of his stupor. But he was still in an unconscious state and his head quickly hit the table with a loud thud, his arms giving out under him and feeling numb. The teen caressed his head in an almost comical manner only seconds after, and Rei who had immediately snapped to look at Takao when he heard a thud, was quickly reverting to his protective and doting mother hen mode and rushed over to the said bluenett.

"Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?" Rei was definitely overreacting, but he couldn't help it. The nekojin felt responsible for the younger members and looked at Max and Takao as younger siblings. In addition, no one, especially such a hyperactive and happy teen should ever be sad on their birthday.

"No Rei, its fine." Takao replied, in an almost strained voice.

"Alright then…" Rei knew that the younger male was lying but he didn't pry. "But let's just get you upstairs and take a nice shower or bath okay?" The nekojin helped Takao up and directed him upstairs, watching the midnight haired teen shuffle into the bathroom with the door closing dully behind him.

And soon enough, the other four teens that were still outside, with only three conscious, carried a very unconscious Max back inside and set him on the couch. They all sat down around the table and chatted idly, mostly about Takao's weird behavior with the distinct muffled sound of the showerhead upstairs.

Then, the doorbell rang.


End file.
